While high-speed or Broadband Internet connections to large businesses have been in existence for some time, Broadband Internet connections to homes and small businesses have only recently become more commonplace. Broadband technologies such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), cable modems, satellite, and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), are all competing for market share. The two technologies at the forefront, DSL and cable, offer much faster Internet access than dial-up modems, for a cost substantially lower than ISDN.
Analog modems over regular telephone lines are not fast enough for today's Broadband multi-media content. In fact, so-called 56 Kbps modems actually move data at approximately 44 Kbps because of telephone-line imperfections. Furthermore, these modems only reach that speed when receiving data, not sending it.
Basic ISDN transfers data at 56 Kbps, while an improved form of ISDN has a maximum speed of 128 Kbps. ISDN is, however, expensive, running up to several hundreds of dollars a month. Furthermore, ISDN is only approximately four times the speed of a 33.6 Kbps modem.
Another option, satellite, which uses the same type of mini-dish antenna typical of broadcast television can receive data at up to 400 Kbps. However, transmitted data still has to be sent through a traditional analog modem at 33.6 Kbps or 56 Kbps.
Cable modems, enable one to hook up a computer to a local cable television line and receive data at about 1.5 Mbps. This data rate far exceeds that of both 56 Kbps analog modems, and the 128 Kbps of ISDN. The actual bandwidth for Internet service over a cable TV line is up to 27 Mbps for receiving data, and up to about 2.5 Mbps of bandwidth for transmitting data. However, since the local provider may not be connected to the Internet on a line faster than a T1 at 15 Mbps, a more likely data rate will be closer to 1.5 Mbps. Cable, however, suffers the drawback that it is carried on existing cable television lines, which not all homes, and especially not all small businesses are equipped with. Furthermore, available bandwidth is shared with other cable users in the same geographic area.
DSL, on the other hand, is 20 times faster than satellite connections, 60 times faster than ISDN, and 250 times faster than 33.6 Kbps analog modems. DSL or xDSL, as used herein, refers to different variations of DSL, such as ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), HDSL (High bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line), and RADSL (Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line). Assuming that the location of one's home or business is close enough to a telephone company central office (CO) that offers DSL service, one can receive data at rates up to 6.1 megabits (millions of bits) per second. More typically, individual connections will provide from 1.544 Mbps to 512 Kbps downstream and about 128 Kbps upstream. Best of all, those bits are transmitted via the same copper wire, otherwise known as a twisted pair, one uses for telephone calls, but without the complex setup of ISDN. DSL does this by taking advantage of unused frequencies that exist on standard telephone lines. An added advantage is that the original POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) frequencies remain free to handle voice traffic over the same twisted pair. Yet another advantage is that unlike cable modems, DSL users do not share their Broadband connections with others in the same geographical area.
However, not all twisted pairs can support DSL service. The quality of different twisted pairs vary according to geographic region, age, gauge, and the distance from the CO. Speed of transmission slows with an increase in distance between the customer premises and the CO.
Furthermore, bridged taps and splices, which are unconnected copper cable between the customer premises and the CO (the result of anticipating customer needs for future expansion or the result of re-assigning copper once routed to one customer to be used by another customer) may also prevent the transmission of DSL signals.
In addition, load coils will prevent the transmission of high-frequency DSL signals within a loop. Load coils were deployed to improve the voice quality of loops greater than 18,000 feet. Still further, Digital Loop Carriers (DLCs) were designed in the early 1970s to combine multiple voice channels (as many as 24 voice lines) into a single T1 transport line. They provided an economical and quick way of adding additional voice lines for remote customers. DLCs use digital techniques similar to those used by DSL equipment. Since the bandwidth of the copper pair is already in use by the DLC equipment, DSL will perform at a greatly reduced rate, if at all, depending on the volume of voice calls and the type of DLC equipment. Connecting DSL equipment to DLCs can also adversely affect the performance of the voice-based system.
Moreover, line noise from adjacent copper cable can affect the performance of DSL service. A number of contributing factors, including cable shielding, unbalanced lines, and the presence of adjacent T1 circuits, can cause line noise. In turn, line noise can affect the error rates of data transmission, resulting in decreased transmission speeds for DSL equipment.
All of these factors affect the ability of the existing infrastructure to carry DSL signals. Depending on local conditions, some of these impediments may make DSL service impossible.
The primary participants in provisioning the DSL service are the DSL Internet Service Provider (ISP), and the local telephone provider, i.e., the telephone company that owns the twisted pair running to the user. Typically, the request for service is initiated from the user to the DSL ISP. The DSL ISP then requests the local telephone provider to provision a line from the local telephone provider to the user.
Once a local telephone provider has ascertained that DSL service can be provisioned over the user's existing twisted pair, a twisted pair is connected between the customer premises and to the CO, through a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM). The local telephone provider normally has a DSLAM installed in the local telephone provider's CO prior to provisioning the user's twisted pair. The DSLAM is then connected to the DSL network through a router. In most cases a technician is then sent out to set up and install a DSL modem at the user premises.
Recent developments have all but eliminated the need for sending a technician to the user to set up and install the DSL modem. These developments allow the user to merely connect the modem to the provisioned twisted pair and a power source, and then turn the modem on. The modem then establishes a DSL circuit and automatically configures itself with important network information from the ISP, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Further details of such automatic configuration can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/668,623, which is incorporated herein by reference.
However, there are instances where a DSL circuit cannot be provisioned at all. For example, where the user has not connected the DSL modem to the correct twisted pair, where the local telephone company has not properly provisioned the twisted pair, where the ISP fails to transmit the network information to the DSL modem, or the like.
In these situations the user usually either refers to a user manual or contacts the DSL ISP's customer support. This results in aggrieved customers and expensive customer support centers. Where the user or a customer support representative cannot diagnose the problem, a technician must be sent to the user premises to set up and install the modem. It has been estimated, that a typical service call to set up a DSL modem, currently costs in the region of $300 for the DSL ISP.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for communicating with a Broadband modem that does not require the use of a preexisting Broadband circuit. Furthermore, a system and method for remotely diagnosing the Broadband modem would also be highly desirable.